café

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ka.fe/^[1]

Forms

café m (usually uncountable, plural cafés)^[1] Chaone (1610), cahoa (1611), caüé (1633), cahvé (1654), cafeh (1651), caphé (1671); café from 1665.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ottoman Turkish قهوه (kahve),^{[5][2][3][4][6]} from Arabic قهوة (qahwa),^[2][3][1] a word which, according to Littré and Devic, named the drink rather than the bean, and had long been a name of wine.^[7][4] Rey thinks the form café noted the Parisian pronunciation of the Turkish word used by the Ottoman embassy, and that the Venetian Italian of the ambassadors (Italian caffè, earlier “caveé”) may also have served as a go-between;^[2][8] Wiktionary derives it from Italian.^[1]

Popular caoua (1863), from soldiers' slang in Algeria, comes straight from Arabic, and is a doublet.^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Scholars first wrote of caoua in Latin (Alpinus, 1592), and travellers to Arabia, Turkey and Persia brought back forms such as cahoa (1611) and caüé (1633);^[2][3] cafeh is from 1651 and café from 1665, in Mme de Sévigné.^[2][9][4]

Semantic evolution

Coffee drinking spread at Marseille, which imported it from Egypt, before 1660, and in Paris after the Turkish envoy Süleyman Ağa served it to his visitors in 1669–1670.^[2][3] The first coffee house opened at Marseille in 1654 and in Paris in 1672;^[4][7] café named such an establishment from 1694 (cabaret de cahué 1662).^[4][9]

Many phrases followed: café au lait, café crème, café-concert, c'est un peu fort de café “that's going too far”.^[9][1] Derivatives include cafetière (1685), caféier (1743) and caféine (1818).^[3]

Timeline

• 1592 – Latin caoua (Alpinus).^[2]
• 1611 – Cahoa.^[3][10]
• 1651 – Cafeh.^[4][2]
• 1654 – The first coffee house opens at Marseille.^[4][3]
• 1665 – Café.^[4][2]
• 1669 – The Turkish embassy makes coffee fashionable in Paris.^[2][3]
• 1694 – Café “coffee house”.^[4][9]
• 1818 – Caféine.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Coffee, the drink: un café noir, un café crème.^[10][1]
2. Coffee beans, roasted or green; the coffee plant.^[10][5]
3. A café, a place serving drinks and coffee.^[10][1]
4. The moment after a meal when coffee is taken: au café.^[9]

Adjective

1. Coffee-coloured.^[1][10]

Word family

• caféiculteur
• caféier
• caféière
• caféine
• caféterie
• cafetier
• cafetière
• pause-café
• pousse-café

Related words

• cafétéria
• décaféination
• décaféiner
• caoua
• English café
• English coffee

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 19, 78a
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
9. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert